The Waitrose Foundation and the Fairtrade Foundation have lent their support to a journey designed to raise awareness of where the UK’s fruit and veg comes from.
Starting in November, fresh produce industry veteran Max MacGillivray and his companion Gareth Jones will motorbike from New Spitalfields Market in London all the way to Cape Town, South Africa.
Along the way, they will visit a host of fruit and vegetable growers, telling the story of how fresh produce gets from where it is grown to British shop shelves.
Pitstops will be made at citrus growers in Spain, the largest grower of sweetcorn in Senegal, a Ghanaian fruit grower that supplies Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, and exotic fruit vegetable producers in Kenya and Tanzania.
MacGillivray said: “Fresh produce is my lifelong passion and I’ve put my heart and soul into the industry so I was dismayed to read that six out of ten British children had no idea where the fruit and veg they eat comes from.Something had to be done.
“I want to tell the story of the fantastic places where our fruit and veg is grown and having two big industry names backing us all the way is incredible.”
The Waitrose Foundation is a partnership between Waitrose, its suppliers and growers who produce, pick and pack its fresh produce in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
The Foundation was launched in 2005 to help improve the lives of the workers and communities that supply Waitrose’s products, including some citrus fruits, flowers and avocados.
The Fairtrade Foundation, meanwhile, works to benefit small-scale farmers and workers across 74 developing countries.
It is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the Fairtrade mark in the UK on products that meet social, economic and environmental Fairtrade standards.
Joanna Milis, education campaigns manager at the Fairtrade Foundation said: “The Great Fruit Adventure champions our work with schools, helping students understand where some of the food we eat in the UK comes from and how our shopping choices can support farmers in developing nations.
“Farmers around the world face many problems from unfair trading practices and poverty to climate change. The challenge Max is setting out on should help raise much-needed awareness about some of the issues. We wish him the best of luck.”
